Panic
by The Mad Hatter Effect
Summary: Short, small gasps if he needed to, the man reminded himself over and over in his head. HUNKcentric Oneshot


**Disclaimer: **HUNK belongs to Capcom. I don't own anything.

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Short, small gasps if he needed to, the man reminded himself over and over in his head as he and a small group of others stood within the gaseous chamber. Around him the few others were shuffling nervously and HUNK felt more proud of himself for keeping his steely resolve.

In the center of the room stood a small fold up table, the gas emitting from the utensils and the chemicals added together to create the tear gas they would all go through. He had heard that military branches all went through it, and it wasn't a surprise to him to find that Umbrella wanted their mercenaries to experience it as well.

Three other people, all in full body suits and gas masks to thwart the gas from affecting them in any miniscule way shambled about the room making sure no one had broken their seal just yet, a fourth stood at the center making sure the table and the utensils upon it wouldn't be knocked over in what could possibly be future chaos.

HUNK's eyes roved the others from behind the large dirty and battered lens of his used gas mask. A mask that was used for this purpose alone and not on actual field missions. He thought he already knew which one would hesitate to break his seal, Ethan, the smallest of the group who shuffled the most in his anxiousness.

"Take a deep breath and hoooooold iiiiiiit!" came the muffled order from one of the men, HUNK wasn't sure which and the man did just that, sucking as much of the stale and humid air into his lungs and holding it.

"Break your seal!"

Snapping his eyes closed HUNK shoved his index and middle fingers into his mask and pushing it away from his face, breath still being held so as to avoid the side affects of the gas. Somewhere to his left he could hear one of the others began to gag and gasp loudly. He must have taken a breath early on...

HUNK's throat burned, but it shouldn't be too much longer before he could safely place his mask back upon his face, clear it and breath easily once again. Or, so he thought;

"Break your seal!"

Forgetting himself, HUNK's eyes flew open in anger wanting to know just _who_ exactly he was going to get back at later. He snapped his eyes closed again, thought it was too late. Tears instantly sprang up and ran down his cheeks in rivers doing nothing to quail the incessant burning in his eyes. He had been ignoring the snot trailing out his nose until that point, determined not to think about it, but now it was impossible to _not_ notice it.

There were no more demands for whoever it was to break their seal to do so and HUNK assumed the person must have done so.

But now HUNK had no way of knowing just how long he had left to hold his breath until he could safely adorn the gas mask once more. His lungs were burning and his stinging eyes still continued, adding to his anxiousness that had begun to well up in his chest.

He didn't know when he had decided to, but in one moment he was still struggling to hold his breath and in the next he had gasped in a lungful of the gas.

The affects were instant.

His throat began to burn as much as his eyes did, snot running into his mouth and tears still dripping down his cheeks. But it wasn't just that - he could've lived with the burning if it meant breathing again.

The gas triggered HUNK's gag reflex as well.

Gagging and gasping for air as others had done before him and were doing with him, HUNK struggled to keep calm, to keep his heart from racing as his body struggled to get more oxygen in order for his body to continue functioning normally. On top of this the panic at not being able to breath continued to rise, causing his heart to continue to thump painfully against his ribs as he mentally demanded for the order to clear their gas masks to be given.

Finally;

"Clear your masks!"

Snapping his fingers away from the mask, it thumped against his face and he quickly worked to clear the mask. It didn't work as he expected;

With no real air in his lungs to expel out to rid himself of the gas still within his mask he was still stuck breathing it in until the small group were finally allowed to leave the gas chamber.

HUNK was among the first to rush out of the chamber ripping the mask away from his face and breathing in clear air, still gagging and retching, fighting to keep his breakfast down. Smashing into one of the others a cut off insult reached his ears but HUNK paid it no mind as he finally stopped, one eye still squeezed shut, the other he had to fight to keep open to keep from running into the wall or the door on his run out of chamber; his vision was blurred with the still free flowing tears.

Placing his hands on his knees, gas mask still in his hand, he continued to retch, though one thing permeated his thoughts;

_Never again... Never again will I allow myself to panic like that!_

His watery-gaze strayed to the gas mask and that's when he made his decision to always don the protective gas masks on future missions to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.


End file.
